Quest Net (aka Gold Quest) is yet another network marketing company which sells overpriced products to members and encourages these members to bring more members to buy its products and gives commission to member when new member signs up under him and buys the product. A binary pyramid kind of compensation plan where in one gets his money back only if he makes around a dozen of his friends/relatives sign up under him, a system wherein only few percentage of people at the very top of the pyramid reap huge benefits while almost everyone else (around 98%) lose their money to their up liners while pursuing a nonexistent dream of financial freedom and instant richness.

Simply put, this is akin to MLM scams and Quest net is banned in several countries- US, Srilanka, Afghanistan, Iran and many more because this kind of scheme loots people of their hard earned money and drains millions of dollars of money out of the country. They are operational in India, Singapore and several other countries, for the sole reason that there’re no stringent laws under which their operation can be declared illegal.

We can go on discussing pros and cons of network marketing and keep arguing if QuestNet is legal or illegal. Internet is full of anti Questnet reviews explaining how almost everyone lose money in Questnet and you can find lots of such posts with a simple search. Let me not reinvent the wheel and focus on a special issue here.

Questnet was banned in Sri Lanka recently after it drained millions of dollars of foreign exchange out of the country, severely affecting nation’s economy.[News] If QuestNet feel they were banned for no reason, they should have convinced Srilankan Government that they are innocent and genuine and try to get the ban lifted. But, it is evident that they have silently opened another company in Sri Lanka, under the name lotus marketing and have started the business as usual, hunting for new prospects and abandoning millions of their earlier IRs (of Quest.Net).

Details of Lotus Marketing launch function can be found here. Their website is supposed to be http://lotus-mktg.com/ which is booked under a discrete domain (so is quest.net, meaning identity of domain owner not disclosed) and is under construction as of now. The conclusion that this company is directly related to earlier QuestNet is drawn from the fact that Lotus Marketing is selling the same products which QN was selling. (BioDisc, Pendants etc, only missing thing is gold coin, which might have been excluded because Gold Coin will draw immediate relation with Questnet which sold huge number of gold coins and is known more for gold coins than any other product). Elakiri, a Sri Lankan community forum has a detailed discussion going on in one of their threads here on this topic.

Quest Net’s Amezcua BioDisc (An useless piece of glass priced at INR 22000 which its promoters claim will cure so many diseases including cancer- More on this product in a separate post soon) presentation says QuestNet has exclusive marketing rights to sell it. So if Lotus Marketing is selling this disc, it has to have backing of QuestNet.

I have already written in my earlier post that network marketing/MLM companies keep their physical assets and presence to minimum so that it will be very easy for them to pack up overnight and re appear later in a totally new disguise.

Questnet Kingpin Vijay Eswaran did nothing to protect the interests of millions of IRs in the countries where Questnet was banned. Those IRs were neigher compensated, nor any visible attempt was made to prove to governments that their business is legitimate and ban deserves to be lifted. What Quest.net has done clearly indicates its intentions are not good and this development (Questnet abandoning its IRs post ban and re appearing in a new name all afresh) should be an alarm for company’s IRs in India and other countries- If QuestNet is banned in India tomorrow, all these members (Independent Representatives) will be left unaware without any compensation for the money they pumped in but haven’t yet recovered. After few months the same promoters of QuestNet, who made billions sucking hard earned money of new members, will re appear to launch a new company and start their fooling business afresh. The blind faith and belief of the IRs may not allow them to believe in all these, but this is the ground reality and its in their own interest that they stay prepared.

Update: As predicted, several thousand IRs have registered complaint against QuestNet India in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and AP. Chennai Police are currently investigating the operations of this company.

Disclaimer: Information in this post are based on the information available with the author at the time of composing this post, sourced from multiple reliable sources and subsequent analysis. Please use your discretion.

Thanks for your valid comments. I am also suffering. But is it good promoting their vacation products? I would like to take back atleast my money (definitely by not cheating any body). My mind says while their gold product is a cheating-one, how can the others products be good. I am not able to come to a conclusion. Could you pl help me. Thanks.

I couldn't find out from their website how much exactly a QN vacation would cost. (It just said I need to buy some coupens)

I seriously doubt if it will be of any use, though as a member you can get the details and compare for yourself.

Any NM/MLM company, the basic idea is to sell a product several times its market value. If they were to sell their products/services at a honest price, they wont be able to pay commisions to upliners and make profit. The whole system will crash if they were to sell the product at its true price.

Thinking on that line, I expect no value add. May be this one cheats you the least?

When they are unable to defend, it is natural that they prefer to stay silent. With more and more people becoming alert they must be finding it difficult to spread the business and might be busy hunting for unexplored territories.

Dear Mr Shrinidhi,What you do is good to do various types of analysis on various systems. But I strongly feel that it should be done in a posotive frame of mind without attacking the institutions and personnals. In your publications in this matter, I find that you have made some malicious comments/accusations against personnal by name which is not ethical and may be subjectet to procecutions. Therefore it is highly appreciated if you could do this without trying to harass anyone in person and also by coming out with correct facts. For instance you have stated "Questnet Kingpin Vijay Eswaran did nothing to protect the interests of millions of IRs in the countries where Questnet was banned. Those IRs were neigher compensated, nor an attempt was made to prove to governments that their business is legitimate and ban deserves to be lifted." Those IRs who were hanging boldy to yhe business during crisis situations know what great pains Data Vijay Eswaran and his team has taken to protect the interests of its IRs. At times he even had gone to the extent of having discussions with certain Head of the States to prove to governments that their business is legitimate and to protest the interests of the IRs. I think that you are unaware of these things and you become the scapegoat by trying to make certain parties happy by going all the way to help them based on what you hear from them. Therefore please do a good job by doing your analysis in a positive note and by way of constructive critisism. I too wish to ask two questions from you. (1)How do you suggest the MLM/NM to be and how it should be operational? (2) Do you know the Anti Pyramid Law in India and how thw QN is violating the Indian Law? I hope you will answer these questions in the near future.

The whole business is a bad idea, because people at the bottom most of the chain are losers. Only way to survive is to bring more and more people into the scheme-but this can't go on sine die... Vijay could have simply refunded the money to those who joined recently but company was closed before they could earn it back... Trying to convince authorities that this is a great scheme and be allowed to continue was more in the interest of QN than IRs... Same in SL and India...

Please write your comment with proper identity, if you wish me to respond to other concerns.

hi shrinidhi,thnx for ur comments..as i join quest.net before six months i got huge checks of rs.40,000 + per months..even if i stayed in very rural area cause f i m awaring of mlm problems i nevr signups my close friends and relative..as per my said to my downline..and anybody who do this type is business..i allways tell people tht this like "bahati ganga" as much time u can get benefit u get it..but never rely on tht..thts wht i told everybody.i always said to people tht it is risk if u wish to join it's ur choice..i never force to anybody..and wht i got is i invested 32000rs. i got morethan four lacs of rs..belive or not..AS PER I SAID ALL BUSINESS ARE RISKY BUT ALL BUSINESS IS GOOD..IT ONLY SUB TO U..HOW U DO IT.i m sorry but i m not agree with u as u said.ONLY UPLINE earn huge amount.still some of ur comment i liked very much..but i want to tell everybody tht this is business..if u do it properly without cheating people it will give u good benefit..cause of quest.net i got very much good finiancial support..REMINDER..same problem with quest.net appeared in 2002 company work was banned for 9 months..but still it has start again.now again crisis going on but i dont know when it will solve.can u get me any new information abt quest.net..FRIENDS PLS DONT MIND.i m not defending quest.net neighter i m against it..I DO ONLY BUSINESS TO EARN MONEY WITH GOOD SOURCE.

dear shrinidhi,if u pretending all people abt all scams and all stuf u write on ur blog...pls help me or people like me who want to earn legal money through net or anyhow?if u say to people dis busines is bad tht business is bad..then u should give good advice abt good business also..dis will be helpful to people..thanx

Well, in my opinion the business is bad because it involves (in most of the cases) nothing but expanding your chain-making downline pay money to the company and get an iota out of it. The sign ups are often done in a misleading manner by hiding lots of facts and trying to cash in on one person's greed to become rich. A few may disclose all pros and cons before asking someone to join, but such people are very very few.

Good for you that you got in early, got enough IRs under you and got your money back. Just pause for a second and calculate the total money pumped into Questnet by your downline. With that total money, if invested elsewhere one can really earn much more, that too without losing capital.

if you've earned 4 lakhs, you must have made your downline pay several crores of rupees into Questnet (in total). If so much money had been retained and invested elsewhere, one can really earn more.

Do you think each one of those 1000s of people under you will be able to earn their money back? Do you think chain will go never ending? Do you think Questnet is doing a charity by giving you this "opportunity"?

You and your downline wont get back even 20% of total money pumped into Questnet.

I am getting tired of explaining same thing again and again. Spare some commonsense to understand the mathematics behind it. There're so many blogs about Questnet and other MLM-read them once-hope you'll be able to make some sense.

now coming to business . this is a different aspect . see it is the time of globalisation and we have got wings to make a living anywhere in the world. why dont u use all these energy to ban the nuclear deal which is going to be signed by our govt.that is ofcourse gonna be dangerous to all. so dont waste ur time in blogging against questnet as weare a huge grp wrking on for its goodwill.thank u.

Put your energy towards development of positivity in you and around you. Questnet is the legitimate business module and not pyramid scheme because pyramid schemes are banned in India. You must be like the person who is going to office or work and working for 10-12 hours for next 30-40 years. So carry on your work. Don't comment on the issues/companies/persons about which you are not expert. Concentrate on your work.

First be rich yourself and then talk which is good for others. Any legal or ethical way of earning money is good for all. Otherwise you are free to work for your entire life.

No proper information available on current status- most of the agents have resigned to their fate, gave up hopes of recovering their money and are back to their earlier profession. Few veterans might have started same or similar business under some other name somewhere else. With people's memory being short term and investigations take years to complete, if at all, no wonder if QN is back in business all over.

This is a 1 year old post guys. Wake up and smell the coffee. Quest Net is a legal company registered in British virgin island where fortune 100 companies are registered. It is just a small wing of QI Groups. It is banned in countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka because their government have some stringent laws which do not allow their country currency to be moved out of the country. Thank god we in INDIA do not have such stupid laws. Quest Net is a 100% business opportunity for people like us where you earn more than your boss. Its not that the people on top earn more than you. The plan is designed in such a way that the person who works will earn.Shrinidhi Hande: If you have earned enough bucks from this blog, then you can buy Business Today October 2009 Volume 9 Issue 10 and read about Dato Vijay Ishwaran. Have a nice day !!!

Amit,Any updates on 1000s of people who filed complaint against Questnet in Chennai and Bangalore? Are they getting their money back? Why hasn't Vijay or others made any efforts either to refund their money or prove that there's no fraud?

For doing any business or providing services in India, it can be done the correct way and then the not so correct way.

See below what went wrong and decide for yourself if the company did it correctly or not.a)Importing of Goods into India : Government of India allows anybody to import anything from outside India provided you are ready to pay the custom duty and also through correct channel. There are two ways: 1.Through the government body " state trading corporation"2.Through independent brokers who Import licenses.

What would you consider more legal and correct way, but naturally the first option ' State trading corporation'. And that is what QuestNet did. They imported all products through STC. What the company did not realize that they will be paying all duties by the book here and no money would go into the pockets of our very duty bound Officials, who would benefit in big way had it be done through private brokers. On the other hand private brokers import so much stuff into India and keep all parties happy(Just look around yourself, all the imported stuff in the stores, Chinese stuff, AMWAY, Oriflame etc are imported via brokers only) But company had taken the decision that they would always do the things correct way, so they still opted for the first option only.END RESULT : CUSTOM OFFICIALS ARE UNHAPPY

b)Usage of Media to its advantage : We have always said that this is referral marketing and the advertisement is by word of mouth. Well the company also took the whole thing same way and did not consider it relevant that we should advertise and give adds in newspapers.So, directly or indirectly the company was not paying anything to media personal in India. Everything is ok as long as we don't have a case.But the moment where thing go out of hand, it is this media which could have been on our side and not anti Quest had they been on the payroll. IN CHENNAI FIASCO, the problem was not so big as it was projected to be. The media went berserk and sensationalized the whole issue. And we don't have to elaborate more on what all happened after that. The business suffered because everybody believes what is said on TV or in paper. Nobody reads the fine line. END RESULT : MEDIA PERSONAL ARE UNHAPPY

c)Paying of Income.Tax : The company like good boys believes in doing things correctly. So they promptly deducted the TDS of 11% and paid out the commission to the IR's. This TDS was then deposited to government and FORM-16 issued to all IR's at the end of financial year. But what they did not realize was that they were dealing with Indians. Who feel that the country runs on air and water and paying taxes is like hard earned money being thrown down the drain. So what ever TDS was deducted ,nothing could be done about it but the rest of the money was not declared by IR"S. And this gentlemen, I am not talking about just some crooked IR"s. This I am talking about 99 % IR's. None of them declared this in the subsequent financial year in the return that they filed. Because they would have had to pay additional Tax of 20 %(Total 30 %)which they did not want to do.END RESULT : INCOME TAX DEPARTMENT UNHAPPY.

d)NRI Status : Government of India rules under FERA require that only citizens who have stayed outside India for more than 6 months are eligible for the NRI status and claim Tax rebate for same accordingly. Company like good guys did not believe that we are so smart that we will also outsmart the company and the government. The company provides business plan for Indian Non resident citizens for registering themselves in another country. In which case company will not deduct any tax and will make full payment of USD 250. However the onus of proving the NRI status rests with the individual. But being the duty bound citizens that we are, many of the non NRI IR's registered under world plan and then did not declare the income along with other income when paying taxes. END RESULT : INCOME TAX AND FERA UNHAPPY

e)Product delays and non payment of bank claims : Unlike other network marketing company, the product delivery does take long time here. Did anybody think why?All products are made in Europe and then shipped in batches to veracious destinations. They are not stocked in one place. The reason is very simple. All products are minted/manufactured and numbered. And these are done as per each individual product description. And a lot of effort goes into making products of exceptional craftsmanship and quality. Stocking cannot be possible as this may cause double shipment costs at times. They cannot be couriered one by one based on requirement as that would increase the shipment costs to 3 times(And the product cost would go up). So they are shipped in containers in batches. A product that has to reach India would have shipment something like this. On placing the order : 2-3 weeks delay before the container is actually filled and shipped. 3 weeks for the shipment to reach India 1-2 week for the shipment to clear customs. 1 week for the orders to be moved to warehouses and segregation. 1 week for delivery

We are talking of 10 weeks that is the minimum time they would take for the product to reach your doorstep after purchasing it. The above details are not taken from QuestNet but from other sources including shipment details/timings from various importers like 'Durien Furniture's' etc. And this is the reason that company says that they need 3 months for delivery. But do our people have patience. NO. they start asking from first day"when the product is coming?, I am not getting any sign up? I will do business only when I get my product" etc etc. That is because we want everything quick and don't want to wait or put any effort in doing the business. So by the end of two months the bank also sends the IR its claim of the credit card money that was used in making the purchase. Has the product come by then? No. what the IR does, he says to the bank. "Sorry Sir,this company is fraud and I will not make any payment, you also don't make any payment to them since they have not delivered the goods". Can the bank stop payment of QuestNet. No. because bank makes payment to service provider like VISA/MASTER who in turn make payment to QuestNet who are registered with them. The bank then says, ok if that is the case we will not allow our credit cards to be used for purchase of products from this company. END RESULT : CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS STOP

Now go through all this and you tell me, what did the company do wrong. I sit the company who has defaulted or is it us who are defaulting.Because of all the above, company has had to take following measures now.a)When in Rome,behave like Romans : They have also started using brokers to import products( AMWAY, K-LIte, all do it). It is cheaper and easier.b)Company appointed media partners to take care media and keep them happy. c)All Indian IR's to provide PAN Numbers. No escape from I.Tax now.. d)When making payments by credit card, you need to signed declaration etc.

So guys after reading all this, if you still feel that company has defaulted and this is some 'get rich quick scheme' that has been busted. Then please look at becoming financially independent some place else. I am sure that this you will find one of those chit-fund companies or the six month schemes in your locality which will help you in becoming rich quickly. On the other hand if you feel that the company did not make any errors,then make a commitment to yourself that not tomorrow, but right now,this very moment you will start doing the business again the correct way and not get bogged down by what ever negativity comes your way.

That was a detailed explanation, but a sustainable business should have anticipated these difficulties and have a plan in place to ensure business continuity when something goes wrong.

But in all cases (Srilanka, Chennai, Afghanistan) etc, as soon as something goes wrong, Questnet finds it easier and economical to packup with the money collected so far, than do something to convince the governments, refund money and regain faith of IRs.

If Vijay Eswaran was worth his name, he could have come to Chennai, explain and convince govt officials about how genuine it is, or meet the IRs and tell them what went wrong and how he plans to fix things or compensate them. But nothing of that sort has happened ever. He disowns any association with questnet India after the scam while IRs still believe he is their God.

I also suspect internal sabotage by senior IRs- who've made enough money and feel that market is getting saturated- Its easier for them to shut shop and decamp, may be restart the same of similar scheme after sometime under some other identity, spreading net for all new set of prospects.

Bottomline is, everything works in fine for initial few years, but once something goes wrong, all we get is excuses and explanation not remedy or compensation.

I think this guy(shrinidhi hande)doesnt know anything about questnet. Otherwise he should not suggest this stupid explanations. Thanks akash malhotra for this beautiful explanation. I think after reading the explanation even a moron can understand.

Use some brains dont talk like a 5year old baby, its time to wake up and smell the coffee, i was there at the time of chennai challenge, i know the way people did the business, and they blamed the company for that, company could have closed its indian operation and run away but Dato Vijay Eswaran dint do that,he took all the pain and hardship to fight for the people who were doing the business in the right manner all the cases now have been solved since they ware fake.

People like u think that its some "Get rich quick scheme", its serious business boss, if u dont understand than dont cry about it, find the truth and then speak.

I am telling u Shrinidhi instead of shitting over here, if u do this business seriously for 2years, u can shit on ur boss.

....great rebuttalsNo where is there today, especially in the USA a place where non-college bound high schoolers can go to get a specialty education program that teaches the A, B, C’s of operating any and all personal businesses. If there were, the success ratio, and more important the initial decisions of that person to pursue a business of their own would be based on knowing what is required instead of the grasping of stars.

Now as far as MLM companies making all of the money, well what company does not make the bulk.. The whole idea from the beginning of MLM is to take the load of running a company itself out of the equation and sharing the profits. Yes there is a building a business faction for the distributor, but it is a business of building a marketing team.

Failure today comes form all areas… the worst in my opinion is in the majority of the population being dependent of others, instead of being dependent of ones self. Every business takes a plan, time, and most important commitment.

Picking on any given industry today is a joke to anyones argument,,, its the over all system that is screwed up, and has created screwed up perceptions of reality. To succeed today a person has more choices, then sense… its a sad truth but everyone wants “push button success” instead of eduction, application, plan, and the discipline to work…

However the world is changing, the needs of today are survival, and maybe, just maybe people are ready to get off their @#%%$# and look, learn, apply, what is out there online at least in abundance…

Education, opportunities, and Google at your finger tips to research and find anything.

Thx for letting me share my 2 cents…“debate is what makes us a modern society”… Socrates

yeah these brain washers have started running their business in bombay too..........and as usual d business is growing......with the help of close friends and family members included they start pulling people into the business......good heavens ive stopped after 3 months of very hectic n brain washing sessions........

cmon its 2012, still QNET is is running. wake up and smell the coffee. so many big people are involved. If products are on higher side then what is the issue? pls ans following question. What is the difference between revenue,profits and investments ? How much time and investment takes to generate 10 lakhs as profit ? Reply expected.

These IR fool people by hiding facts. One of IR contacted me and said it is a business proposal of expansion of business and they are taking interviews and minimum criteria to get into this business is whoping INR 3.5 lacs.. God saved me as my credit card limit exceeded that day and later I read about this company on the net... God save people from these parasites.. Heights of fooling innocent people

qnet is the best and genuine network marketing company in asia. now its running on Europe too. do u know why u are writing like this post? because you are a unsuccessful man. you never win, u are a person that always unhappy. dont make another man like u. congraz.. keep posting. but you never can stop this company. its powerfull

Qnet group is now operating under tha name GLOBAL STYLE LANKA, many have been duped! be safe!! main operators are Pharu Didi (Pharu) and another fellow going by the name Dhammika Dhulendhura Herath (DD) from Kandy.

Appreciate your efforts and interests to comment. Comments may be moderated due to increased spam. Will ideally respond to comments within few days.Use Anonymous option if you don't wish to leave your name/ID behind- Shrinidhi